November 28, the sixth year of Dajin Daoguang.

Periphery of Peshawar.

The East India Company-Sikh Empire's pre-siege tactical moves have been completed, and the assault on Peshawar is about to begin!

The coalition forces of the East India Company-Sikh Empire had driven over from the direction of Mardan two days earlier. At the head were the Sikh cavalry, who fought with the Afghan tribal cavalry sent from Peshawar (provided by the tribes near Peshawar) for most of the day on the flat terrain of the Gandhara Basin. Then the cavalry of the Afghan tribes, which was at a disadvantage, slowly retreated, and did not retreat back to Peshawar City, but dispersed to the tribes around Peshawar City.

The battle between the cavalry on both sides was not very long, and the fighting was not very fierce. Wu Fax was reluctant to send his own Eight Banners soldiers, but just asked Abbas. The Pashtun tribal knights called by Khan went out to test the reality of the British. These tribal knights were not familiar with regular cavalry combat, but they were good at sneak attacks and harassment, and were very familiar with the terrain. Therefore, Wu Fax did not let them go back to the city to waste food, but let them retreat to Peshawar and lurk, waiting for the British to set up before pinching their logistics line.

The black turbaned saint Abbas. Khan, on the other hand, left Peshawar early in the morning and hid among the hill tribes a little farther away, and remotely commanded the tribal cavalry and "slipper infantry" from the Pashtun tribe to spank the British......

But not rest. Gough doesn't care about these "slippers" at all, can the dignified British soldiers lose to the "slipper soldiers"? No, you can't! Moreover, in his opinion, the scattering of these "slippers" shows that the people in Peshawar are unstable, and it is estimated that the number of Jin soldiers is not enough, and they are not at all the opponents of the 18,000 British-Sikh coalition army.

So Hugh. Gough immediately ordered his men to deploy and prepare for the siege of Peshawar. By the middle of the night of 27 November, his coalition forces had taken control of the starting positions for the attack and the routes for moving troops along the front.

Because the troops of the East India Company were basically lightly armed and did not carry much artillery. The army of the Sikh Empire was already limited by the East India Company and had a limited number of cannons. But not rest. After concentrating the artillery of the Allied forces, Gough assembled eighteen 12-pounder Armstrong breech guns and several thousand shells, all of which he assembled to bombard the walls of Peshawar...... Although the firepower is not strong, the ancient city wall of Peshawar and the outer wall of the Citadel of Peshawar cannot withstand the bombardment of this advanced rear-loading artillery at all!

As long as the city wall collapses, are you afraid that you won't be able to take Peshawar?

In the early morning of 28 November, the commanders of the coalition forces at all levels began to observe their positions, and the artillery began to covertly enter the firing positions. But when the rest. Gough and his staff officer Charlie. Colonel Brown saw that the low and tight defense system consisting of barbed wire (there was not enough barbed wire, so Wu Fax ordered someone to build a batch of horse repulsion guns), barbed wire and trenches, was a little refreshing.

The traditional defense system of this era was still handed down from the Napoleonic Wars more than ten years ago, and the likes of bastions and walls were no longer in fashion, and were replaced by a combination of various obstacles, moats, breastworks, and pillboxes.

However, the defensive line placed by the Jin soldiers on the periphery of Peshawar City did not include a breastwork, and there did not seem to be a relatively large blockhouse, and at the same time, many wooden stakes were nailed to the front of the position, and there were things like iron wires on the wooden stakes......

"Charlie, what's going on with those stakes?"

Hugh, who has fought a lifetime. Gough didn't even think of the "barbed wire" thing for a moment.

"It's barbed wire," or his adviser to Charlie. Brown was well-informed, "by cutting the wire into small pieces, wrapping them around the wire fence, and cutting the ends of the wire into spikes." ”

"Ah, and the ends have to be cut into spikes...... So something that is dangerous and lacks public morality must have been invented by the people of the Zhuge family, right? "Hugh. Gough asked.

"General, I don't know who invented barbed wire," Charlie. "But I know that most of the barbed wire on the market is made by the Ming Dynasty...... Ranchers in Australia, the United States and Europe love to use it to divide their pastures. There are also some rich people who will use it to prevent thieves and theft. ”

Actually Hugh. Gao Fu guessed correctly, this immoral and smoking barbed wire was "invented" by the Zhuge family, and it has also applied for patents in the Ming Dynasty, Europe and the United States!

Now the patent protection period has not expired, so the barbed wire in the European market is still made by Daming.

However, apart from the Ming army, no one used barbed wire for military purposes, but the livestock and security industries would need it. Charlie. The Brown family is relatively wealthy, and there is a large estate in the Irish countryside, in order to prevent the despicable Irish from stealing the family's cattle and sheep, so the Brown family's estate is surrounded by barbed wire made by the Ming Dynasty......

"How do you break it?" Stop. Gough held up the binoculars and said, "If we don't get it, I'm afraid it will be difficult for our people to get through." ”

"Cut it off with iron tongs," said Charlie. Brown frowned, "But we don't seem to have iron tongs...... It's definitely too late to place an order now. ”

"What else can be done?" Stop. Gough asked again.

"Do you want to cut the stake?" Charlie. "The cooks are equipped with axes for chopping wood. ”

"Good!" Stop. Gough nodded, "That's it...... Distribute axes to all infantry companies that take part in the attack! He thought for a moment, "Tomorrow at three o'clock in the morning, the attacking troops will have dinner and prepare dry rations. Artillery preparation began at four o'clock in the morning, and each cannon fired a base number of ammunition first...... Tomorrow at five o'clock in the morning, launch the first wave of attacks! ”

"Yes, Your Excellency, Lieutenant General!"

......

The so-called "Bagua Machine Gun Array" set up by Wu Fax outside Peshawar is actually an octagonal position, with numbers on each side, namely "Qian", "Kan", "Gen", "Zhen", "Xun", "Li", "Kun", and "Dui".

This octagonal position was laid out around the city of Peshawar, and a criss-cross of communication trenches were dug behind the position, leading all the way to the outer moat of the city. Outside the four gates of Peshawar, thick earthen walls were built more than one person high, so that the troops entering and leaving the gates could have a cover and would not be discovered by the enemy.

In addition, behind each of the four earthen walls there was a command headquarters, which was responsible for directing the defenders on the two "edges" of the front.

As for the artillery of the defenders, they were placed in the square outside the fortress in Peshawar and were directly controlled by Wu's headquarters.

On the night of November 28, Wu, who was aware of the imminent attack of the British army, issued an order to keep the outer positions on guard all night! In the early hours of the next day, as the front reported the movements of the British troops, the alert was strengthened again. All the officers and men entered the position, and their eyes widened as they looked at the black oppression in front of them. Mortars and machine guns also entered the positions and were placed in firing positions located various along the front.

Everyone held their breath, watching the minutes tick by.

The headquarters of Pingxi Wang Wu was placed on the tower of the Peshawar fortress in the city of Peshawar. Zhuge Weidao, Zheng Guoxian and Mu Zhongjun were already in place at about three o'clock in the morning and almost four o'clock, and they climbed a corner tower together, and three large magnification telescopes have been erected, this corner tower is the commanding height of the entire Peshawar City, overlooking the entire battlefield, no matter which direction the British and Indian troops attack, they can see clearly.

Zhuge Weidao held the telescope and looked at it for a long time, but because it was too dark, he didn't see anything, and finally had to put it down helplessly. He looked back at Zheng Guoxian and Mu Junen, these two elites of the Ming Army seemed to have a good relationship, and they had already smoked cigars together at this time (they all knew that Zhuge Weidao didn't smoke, so they didn't give him smoke), and the two of them also found that Zhuge Weidao turned his head and laughed.

"Hehe, barbed wire, machine gun fire...... Now there's a good show to watch! ”

"Yes! The situation of the war will change dramatically! Brother Daozi...... It's a pity that you don't do the army! But we're both stained with you this time, and the lieutenant general is hopeful! ”

Zhuge patted the stone wall of the corner tower for Dao, and said with a smile: "I pinched my fingers and counted, and I knew that the two of them had the future of being generals, generals, and even marshals." Because ......"

As soon as he said this, the corner of his eye suddenly swept to the eastern sky, and a golden ball of light suddenly rose in the middle of the sky.

Zhuge Weidao looked at the light that suddenly appeared in the starry sky, his spirit was suddenly shocked, and he said in a low voice: "Daying, the times have changed, and your era is almost over!"